This invention relates to processing steels.
Titanium-modified austenitic stainless steels have been used to fabricate nuclear reactor components. One problem with such steels, however, is that they tend to swell, thereby decreasing the service life of the component and limiting efficient operation of the nuclear reactor. One approach to increasing swelling resistance has been to process the steels using conventional ingot casting followed by hot forging and rolling, solution annealing, and cold rolling. A second approach has been to process the steels using rapid solidification techniques followed by cold rolling.